Chronicles the 1519 arrival of Hernando Cortes in Mexico, his discovery of an advanced civilization replete with gold and headed by the emperor Montezuma, and his victory over Montezuma and the Aztec empire, effectively annexing the territory for Spain.
Jonathan Hughes, an anthropologist specialising in social stereotyping, is determined to re-examine this case. There were alarming disparities in the evidence and Hughes has little doubt that there has been a terrible miscarriage of justice. But there is also something else pushing this half-Iranian, half-Libyan outsider to reach for the truth . . . This is more than a mere expose of corruption, it is a dark tale of solitude...